Cynical Judgment
by SocialistBukharin
Summary: Little Hermione Granger deals with disappointing numbers about Hogwarts Library but... Written for the Houses Competition Year 5! Standard One-shot!


Hermione huffed as she placed another three books on the growing tower of literature she had created in little time, ignoring the annoyed glances coming from the tables occupied by Ravenclaws as she continued her 'little' research.

While Professor McGonagall had been quite receptive about her inquiries regarding Magic itself and the school when she first introduced her to the Wizarding World, the brunette would be lying to herself in saying that she hadn't been skeptical about the size of the 'great library' that housed thousands and thousands of books in the School of Magic.

While a first-year and still young enough to pay rightful respect to the authority of the teachers in this castle, the gnawing sense of doubt had survived the first three days at the school. The presence of her new friends, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, had relaxed her thirst for knowledge for a while, her mind deciding to further delve into what was a budding friendship.

As her interest over the subject proved to be as confusing as intriguing started to slightly wane, her initial questions over the library returned to poke at her brain - questioning and begging for some answers from that central point of cultural exchange.

It was early in that Sunday morning when Hermione first entered the library, head bobbing a nod while passing near the librarian, Madam Irma Pince.

The woman squinted her eyes at her, her sight possibly weakened by the continuous task of checking the books returned by the other students, scrutinizing them to find any issue caused by the temporary 'lease'. She was a woman Hermione could respect up to a certain point, finding her career choice and abrasive personality to be a dreadful combination to have around.

Thus, skipping any unnecessary pleasantries with her fellow Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs trying to cram in enough knowledge for tomorrow's Transfiguration Test – which she had already prepared enough to ace it – the brunette ventured through the aisles of the library, starting to calculate the number of books present in that seemingly endless library.

Considering that there were 224 bookshelves, which size allowed only 125 in a standard placement, and adding the 138 books that were crammed between the upper spaces left vacant in the shelves, Hermione was quite certain that the approximate number of books present in the library was… 28131 tomes of knowledge.

Seven were excluded because of the state they were currently available, unusable to satisfy a reader nowadays and working better in a pavilion in some museum.

That was her estimations for the permitted section of the library; the restricted section being unreachable as it was restricted, but she didn't need to venture there to know that the books contained there weren't enough to make a difference in comparing this library to the British Library, which contained more than 150 million books in its care.

A saddening discovery which was further soured by the following research - the quality of the library.

Centuries old, the Hogwarts Library was built on a specific part of the castle which should give proper light from the Gothic windows near its roof. Sadly, this decision from the architect rendered it quite difficult to study when the sky was clouded or it was raining, which happened quite often in Scotland. And that is ignoring the old wards set on the windows meant to hold back the raindrops from entering the building from there, yet terribly failed to do the same for the ice pellets coming in during hailstorms. Torches were simplistic and far too few to provide a good replacement to normal sunlight, thus rendering studying there during a storm, or even some cloudy day, to be nigh impossible.

While Hermione knew that magic didn't work well with electronics, she was fairly sure that the Leaky Cauldron had some lightbulbs here and there, thus rendering that flimsy excuse just a pretense to not pay for proper services.

The ancient lifestyle proposed by the school clashed very annoyingly with the Granger's preference of a comfortable means to achieve new milestones for her education, and the cons of staying in this castle were starting to get more and more evident.

But while part of her wanted to literally go back home and seek to be home-schooled, there was that nagging part of her, the newest bit to her mind, that reminded her that she would lose her friends - her_ first_ friends.

Returning to loneliness? That wasn't something she could just accept so quickly.

A nod started from her, an acceptance to wait and see how things were going to unfold during this first year. Who knows, maybe she could get hang of this peaceful but antique life here in Scotland.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**House: Snakes**

**Year: 5**

**Prompts: [Setting] Hogwarts Library, [Weather] Hail.**

**Subject: History of Magic**

**Word Count: 787**


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